Secondhand Time
The Last of the Soviets
New York : Random House, [2016]
Format: Book
Edition: First U.S. edition.
Description: xiv, 470 pages ; 25 cm
"From the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Svetlana Alexievich, comes the first English translation of her latest work, an oral history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia. Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive documentary style, Secondhand Time is a monument to the collapse of the USSR, charting the decline of Soviet culture and speculating on what will rise from the ashes of communism. As in all her books, Alexievich gives voice to women and men whose stories are lost in the official narratives of nation-states, creating a powerful alternative history from the personal and private stories of individuals"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
Chronology : Russia after Stalin -- Remarks from an accomplice -- The consolation of apocalypse : snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (1991-2001) -- Ten stories in a Red interior. On the beauty of dictatorship and the mystery of butterflies in cement ; On brothers and sisters, victims and executioners ... and the electorate ; On cries and whispers ... and exhilaration ; On the lonely Red marshal and three days of forgotten revolution ; On the mercy of memories and the lust for meaning ; On a different Bible and a different kind of believer ; On the cruelty of the flames and salvation from above ; On the sweetness of suffering and the trick of the Russian soul ; On a time when anyone who kills believes that they are serving God ; On the little Red flag and the smile of the axe -- The charms of emptiness : snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (2002-2012) -- Ten stories in the absence of an interior. On Romeo and Juliet ... except their names were Margarita and Abulfaz ; On people who instantly transformed after the fall of Communism ; On a loneliness that resembles happiness ; On wanting to kill them all and the horror of realizing that you really wanted to do it ; On the old crone with a braid and the beautiful young woman ; On a stranger's grief that God has deposited on your doorstep ; On life the bitch and one hundred grams of fine powder in a little white vase ; On how nothing disgusts the dead and the silence of dust ; On the darkness of the evil one and "the other life we can build out of this one" ; On courage and what comes after -- Notes from an everywoman.
Subjects:
Post-communism -- Russia (Federation)
Oral history -- Russia (Federation)
Oral history -- Soviet Union.
Russia (Federation) -- Social conditions -- 1991-
Soviet Union -- Social conditions.
Russia (Federation) -- Biography.
Soviet Union -- Biography.
Post-communism -- Russia (Federation)
Oral history -- Russia (Federation)
Oral history -- Soviet Union.
Russia (Federation) -- Social conditions -- 1991-
Soviet Union -- Social conditions.
Russia (Federation) -- Biography.
Soviet Union -- Biography.
ISBN:
9780399588808
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
HISTORY Ale | Main (Downtown) | Third Level, Nonfiction | In |
"An oral history"--Cover.
"Originally published in Russian as Vrem︠i︡a sekond khnd [Romanized] by Vremya Publishing House, Moscow, in 2013"--Title page verso.
"Originally published in Russian as Vrem︠i︡a sekond khnd [Romanized] by Vremya Publishing House, Moscow, in 2013"--Title page verso.